Solar Storm Tonight

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center forecasts a solar storm for tonight. They say that an aurora maybe be seen in the northern US states. Monday they observed a CME and the stream of charged particle should strike the earth today.

They don’t expect this moderate solar storm to create any grid failures, only a spectacular light show for some. Most of the charged particles will be blocked by the earth’s magnetic field but when a large amount of these particle stream hits the earth’s atmosphere, some of the particles are not pulled to the poles and they ionize the air further from the poles. These particles cause the northern lights.

Solar storms are ranked on a scale where G is the weakest, R is moderate and S is given to the most severe. They expect this storm to be ranked as a G1, a minor storm.